Medical students and junior doctors of the five medical college and hospitals of Calcutta have decided to step up their agitation against reservation by threatening to go on an indefinite relay hunger strike from Thursday night.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Youth for Equality?s Calcutta chapter, formed by medical students and junior doctors to fight the Centre?s decision to increase the number of quota seats.

The meeting was held at Medical College and Hospital on Thursday afternoon, during the daylong token strike at SSKM Hospital and National Medical College and Hospital.

Although National Medical will be the venue of the hunger strike, junior doctors from all medical colleges and hospitals will join in.

?This is the next step of our movement, after the rallies and one-day token strikes,? said Debjit Saha, a Medical College and Hospital intern of and member of Youth for Equality.

?If the government does not take any step to solve the problem, we will have no choice but to call an indefinite strike and a simultaneous hunger strike,? Saha said.

Junior doctors plan to run a parallel outpatients? department if they call a strike to ensure that patients are not inconvenienced.

?Right now, we do not want to begin an indefinite strike because that will inconvenience patients. But if the government forces us to do so, we cannot be blamed,? said Satyajit Das, another member of Youth for Equality.

The agitating doctors and students will organise a blood donation camp at National Medical College and Hospital on Friday morning to express solidarity with the patients.

Junior doctors visited various colleges and universities in the city on Thursday and distributed leaflets to garner support from non-medical students against reservation. They also distributed anti-quota leaflets at key junctions of the city.

On Friday, junior doctors of R. Ahmed Dental College will observe a 24-hour strike.